Chương 551: Heavy Metal

It turned out that getting the gold from the small villages in the jungle wasn't the most difficult part of the operation. Getting it out of the jungle proved much tougher. Marcie's small mercenary force was always on the move, evading the large patrols sent after them. The lizardmen had learned quickly that smaller patrols and scouts were no match for the hardened jungle fighters and vicious mercenaries, to say nothing of the towering presence that was UncaVarn.

Marcy had to admit that using him as a recruiter had been a brilliant part of Billy's plan. The lizards spying on them would see him, and hear his constant ranting and it drew them like moths to a flame. Their numbers swelled with scouts. The small forces of heavy fighters led by under priests were mostly immune to recruitment, but easy to ambush and wipe out.

As more and more of the lizardman army was thrown into the fight, the units were merged, getting larger and tougher to deal with until Marcy had to dance around them, baiting them one way as her force hit a village in the opposite direction. The gold was carried by Buttercup. The huge beast thought nothing of a ton or two of the shiny treasure on its broad back, and it delighted UncaVarn and made him behave.

This made moving their growing hoard of precious metal easy, but taking it out of the jungle presented problems. The biggest was inadvertently luring the lizardman army towards Blackrock. Putting the focus back on the human settlement with its precious teleporter was a tactical error she wasn't going to make. Using a wagon was out of the question. It would take one of the special, reinforced wagons from Sedgwick, constructed from Ironwood and Dark Steel to carry the heavy loads.

And that would take building a road through the jungle that any enemy forces could race along, leading them either to the wagonload of gold, or to Blackrock. She needed another way. As usual, the solution was Contract Workers. Each of them could carry immense weights if they had something to carry the gold in. She sent one of her crew of girls to get her plan approved, guided by the intrepid jungle explorer Dr. Barklight.

With him as their guide they made good time, racing through the jungles and emerging from them onto the lush southern plains, about fifteen miles from Blackrock. A quick teleport to Gadobhra later, Dr. Barklight was giving Layla and Billy his report while Marcy's Mercs hit the local taverns for fizzy drinks and pie.

"Tell me about the gold. Lots of it?" Billy's eyes were intense as they sat down to talk. This might be the biggest deal of his career. VP Emmet, AKA Dr. Barklight had his muddy boots on one chair while leaning back in another, a dark beer in one hand and a grilled ostrich leg in the other. Gone was the slightly pudgy explorer who had arrived in Gadobhra a few months ago. This man was lean, tanned, and wearing tattered and stained clothing that would fade into the jungle background.

The only thing the same was the battered pith helmet.

"So much gold it almost gave Vernon a heart attack, and the lizards don't value it like we do. They situate their villages on small seams or mines in a nearby cave so they have something to offer for tribute. There's an odd stone altar that works like a teleporter for the gold, sending it to their main city. They bring it out, the traveling priest makes a tally, and it disappears. We've changed the script, but the villages are fine with that.

We show up, tally the gold, take it with us, and Uncle Vern hands out 'Vernon Bucks' good for prayers and miracles, and lets them invest in the ACME Golden Pyramid. Then we run off to another village, dodging the soldiers they keep sending after us. We're able to loot tons of it, but we need a way to get the gold out of the jungle." He explained the difficulties and Marcy's solution. Layla and Billy liked it. It solved their problem without additional costs.

"That works. I'll send back a half dozen of our veteran farmers with you. Each of them can easily pack as much gold as we can fit into a reinforced backpack. I'll put the leatherworkers on that chore. We've got some damned tough hides out of Gadobhra. Stuff that we can't even make armor out of yet, but they should be able to turn it into simple packs for hauling heavy loads. If it works, they can make continuous trips into the jungle and back to Blackrock. I might even put a separate crew at the jungle edge.

They'll bring some supplies for the caravan, and swap for the gold." The leatherworkers produced the packs in only a day. Each was made from the hide of a Tier Four Army-dillo and a sturdy barrel. The barrel was covered in two layers of dillo hide, with straps four layers thick. This gave plenty of room for the odd shaped gold, often in the form of crowns, platters, drinking glasses and disturbing effigies. Each worker could pack out two tons of gold.

They could carry much larger loads, but the limiting factor was something that could hold the weight. A dozen Contract Workers left the next day along with the mercs and Dr. Barklight. Billy found the wait intolerable and was often seen pacing back and forth by the teleport stone, waiting for a message, or better, a pile of bright, shiny metal. Diego found him there as he emerged from his meeting at the Engineering College, two weeks after the small expedition had left.

He blessed his luck, both at still being alive, but also finding the Baron so quickly.

"Greetings, you eminence. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important?"

"Nope. Just getting in my daily walking around and around this damned stone. What can I do for you, Inquisitor?"

"Well, it's more about what you can do for the Empire. It seems that his Imperial Majesty has become aware of your city's capabilities, and asked me to present you with a small request."

"How small?"

"Oh, a trifle compared to what you've accomplished. I've just spoken to your Engineers and they tell me this is very feasible."

"They say a lot of things. What's the deal?"

"Gustavus isn't happy with how fast his Mages Guild is repairing the teleport network. He'd like to turn your Engineering Collegium into an assembly line for the components he needs, as well as having your skilled runecarvers construct ten new teleport stones. For compensation of course."

"Tell me about the compensation."

"Certainly. Firstly, he has politely asked the Head of the Mages Guild to certify the Sedgewick Mages Guild as a Tier Four tower. He also offers instant recognition should you need to construct a Mages Guild tower in Gadobhra, and offers some staff to help with that." Billy nodded. That was a benefit. Adventuring mages could buy spells, get quests, and purchase material components. Anything that kept them in Gadobhra and helped them to spend money was good.

"A good start. What about the costs? Raw materials and such."

"Shipments of the metals and crystals will be sent to you, but he says to feel free to substitute local materials and to bill him for them. Also, to bill the cost of labor and anything else that costs you money. Plus profits. He said to be creative and take it off your tax bill, and the two of can haggle over it later. The priority is the repair of the network." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Billy liked the sound of this more and more.

Monetizing that big empty tower and cutting down his tax bill made him drool.

"And what happens when politics rears its ugly head and people scream about the evil Baron Billy once again gaining too much power?" Diego grinned, showing teeth.

"Then I get to have fun by showing up where I'm not wanted and making lives miserable. And, I'm authorized to bring help. The Empire is fighting for its life. Gustavus is going to use every tool that he has available to win these wars. And that includes you, Gadobhra, and Sedgewick. He doesn't care if they congregate at his court and blather for hours. He does care if they get in the way of anyone doing work. You've proved useful, and he wants you to be more useful.

I get to be useful by keeping people from annoying you."

"My, my. This is going to really tick people off then, and shut them up. Please convey to our Emperor that he's got a deal." The teleport pad began to glow, and the mage on duty yelled, "Careful, something heavy coming through and taking a lot of power!" Billy stared at the rune carved rock, not able to even think. Diego stepped back thirty feet. With a flash of light, six heavily laden contract workers appeared.

When they stepped off the teleport stone, several broke the flagstones in the plaza that they stepped on. One of them grinned and said, "Mission successful. Marcy estimates each of the six of us is packing about 60, 000 coins worth of gold. Where do you want it?" Billy was dancing a jig. After a minute, he calmed down enough to talk.

"Let's wander over to the Gnomish Silver Bank of Gadobhra and make my banker very happy." Diego was happy as well. That much gold came with a huge tax bill attached to it that the Baron would be eager to work off. He stepped back on the teleport pad to return to the Capital and a quiet meal with Gustavus where he gave his report on deals that no one else would become aware of for some time to come. The other person who was extremely happy that morning was Banker Pescennius, of the Silver Gnomish Bank of Gadobhra.

Nothing warmed his heart like seeing six burly men carrying huge piles of gold to go into his bank. As each item was placed on the counter for weighing and cataloging, he saw his path to a gold bank inch closer and closer.

"These are amazing pieces! Gold is always a pleasure to handle, but some of these are works of art. This pair of goblets, for instance. The engraving is exquisite. Layla had suspected this, but lacked the knowledge to appraise such items.

"We would welcome your insight into what might be worth selling to maximize the gold we deposit." As soon as she said that, Uncle Constantine moved into the conversation.

"I would be happy to help you out with that, Baroness. Young Percy here bears the heavy responsibility of running the bank, but I have a bit of time on my hands." Percy considered. His uncle did seem to get along with Baroness Layla, and he truly was busy.

"Thank you, Uncle. I'm sure you will conduct yourself with the dignity of an associate of the Royal Gnomish Bank."

"Oh, always lad, always. I must say, it's not every day that a collection like this walks into a bank." Billy and Layla grinned at each other. The Baron said casually, "You may want to get used to the idea. There's more where this came from. Frankly, transport of the gold is our biggest problem right now. Heavy stuff." Uncle Constantine could barely lift one of the larger platters and had to agree.

"There's more?"

"So much more."

"What do you think, Percy? Can we help with that? We could deploy a temporary deposit box at their location and save our best customer the trouble of transporting a heavy load back to our bank." Billy and Layla were immediately interested.

"How does that work? I like the idea already." Banker Pescennius looked at his uncle and sighed. The old boy always skimped on the fine details and was too quick to reveal things better kept secret.

"I can request the use of a temporary deposit box. These act like a teleportation device, linked directly to a room in Cinderstine where items are appraised and catalogued, then credited or placed back into individual banks. They are rare items, generally used for large hoards of Dragons, the Giant Kings, or lost treasure vaults of an Arch Lich, but..." Billy said, "I want one." Banker Pescennius finished, "... they carry a fee of One Million gold pieces, payable in advance, and come with some restrictions."

"I don't want one... well, not now. It might be an option if we can't pull the gold out any other way and a big pile is sitting in the jungle, rotting. But that fee cuts into profits pretty harsh."

"Oh, it does. Generally one would only use such a device for rare artifacts, dangerous items, or truly massive hoards of gold."

"Like say, a dragon? I think you mentioned dragons."

"Exactly. But, I must warn you. The Royal Gnomish Bank and the Draconik Council have agreements about ownership of hoards and when such a device can be used. Otherwise, clever thieves would use sleeping spells on an aged wyrm and steal his gold while he slept, and other fiendish methods. The Bank will not be partners to thievery. There is a time period after claiming a hoard before we can declare you the legal owner and then assist with transport."

"How long? We talking hours? Days?"

"For a Baron, the time period is one month. This decreases for higher degrees of nobility."

"Damn, so using Vern to bait out the dragon and steal the gold is out." Layla said, "Only using this clever method. We could still use wagons and haul it down that convenient road. But, we'd need and army to fight the lizards in the city, and some way of delaying or killing the dragon. I don't think it's viable at this point. We need to focus on the treasures in the jungle, and taking the gold out with our Workers, one load at a time.

Even splitting this in half, we made 180 thousand gold, paid Marcy 90k, and put 90k aside for UncaVarn." Billy grinned, "Minus the fees for services he agreed to." Layla grinned back, "Agreed in writing on a boilerplate ACME contract, with witnesses. He really is getting old and forgetful." Banker Pescennius had followed only about half of what was said, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the deposit level of his bank was increasing and would increase again.

Truly, the Barony of Gadobhra was the land of plenty. If he could promote his bank to Gold Tier, he'd replace his cousin as the youngest banker in history to do so. He might even be able to get married, with his mother's approval. The Baron said, "We'll be back in a week with another deposit."

"And the Royal Gnomish Bank of Gadobhra will be waiting for you and ready to help with all your banking needs." He and Uncle Constantine waved until they were out of sight, then locked the bank, and took a half hour victory nap to celebrate.